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How do you move out of a smarthome?

shkspr.mobi

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Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#91

Post by gwbas1c »

junkcollector wrote: post #58
gwbas1c wrote: post #17

I recently sold my home. I didn't take the plunge with smart switches, but I had Nest thermostats and Nest smoke alarms. I wish I either removed everything before putting my house on the market, or excluded them all from the sale. The buyer was confused, and the Nest smoke alarms needed to be replaced prior to closing. The Nest smoke alarms were fine, but due to local fire codes, I needed to have wifi running at insp…

Fire code requires that fire alarms be networked to alert people in all rooms in the event of a fire. Older un-networked units are grandfathers until you begin replacement. Wifi networking is allowed by the code, but for obvious reasons, the inspector has to verify that it works and is set up correctly which requires running wifi. Personally I would not purchase a home that was configured with nest or other home auto…

> I would not purchase a home...

It's not that hard to change a thermostat and smoke alarm. "Dumb" smoke alarms and thermostats are very inexpensive and easy to install. Buy a home for the structure and location. You can always change the few things you don't like.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#92

Post by jrochkind1 »

Washuu wrote: post #81
0culus wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fire code where? Requirement to be networked is a new thing to me, at least as far as single family dwellings go.

Networked isn't really the right term. Hardwired fire alarms are the new requirement. They just have AC power with battery backup and an additional wire that triggers all the wired alarms to go off when one goes off.

In Maryland at least, there are non-hard-wired alternatives in some cases that aren't new construction but still trigger an upgrade required.

I have some that have "long-term tamper-proof batteries" (I think they last 5 years or something)... and _somehow_ are "interconnected" (so they can all trigger each other) which was a requirement. They don't use _my_ wifi, I don't know how they are interconnected without wires exactly (or if it even really works). I'm not worried about it, but it passed inspection.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#93

Post by s0rce »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #32
wyldfire wrote: post #20

> do we hand over all the cloud passwords as well? Or do we factory reset everything and let them go through the dull process of setting up new accounts? Wow, I hope this is rhetorical. No, you never give anyone your password for anything. Yes, you absolutely let them go through the dull process of setting up new accounts. > When I move into a house, do I want to spend the first day looking up manuals online to try a…

> A bit of a faff - and possibly annoying to the new occupiers to not be able to easily set the heating until they've moved in, configured the WiFi, and registered for an account. I would argue that that's a failure of the thermostat. It absolutely needs to have a dumber fallback mechanism, not just for new residents, but for the current ones. (What if my internet goes down? What if the cat pees on my router?)

I left an Ecobee smart thermostat when I sold my house. I deleted my online account and you could still adjust the temperature manually. I assume the new owner would eventually set up an online account but they wouldn't need to if they just wanted a 'dumb' thermostat. The Ecobee also works as a 'dumb' fallback when wifi is down.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#94

Post by gwbas1c »

dylan-m wrote: post #90
gwbas1c wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'm not sure. I thought they had a backup mesh network. I bought them because they speak in English instead of making a series of nonsense beeps; they're easy to silence when you burn something in your kitchen; they send a push alert when they need batteries instead of needing to chase down a random beep in the house; ect, ect. I really don't care about a backup mesh network as long as they are loud enough…

Ah, looked it up, and it seems they must have a separate protocol that they use for interconnect: https://nest.com/support/article/Are-my-Nest-Protects-still-... . And apparently it's even sort of a standard. Nifty :) Your comment about requiring wifi frightened me somewhat, but I guess they wanted to check Nest-specific things or something?

I honestly don't know. I couldn't get a straight answer from my realtor.

A few days later I was at a bar while their alarm system was getting inspected. I asked one of the pros about the situation and he told me that Nests require a working internet connection in order to pass state inspection, and all of the alarms have to be Nest.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#95

Post by ocdtrekkie »

fredophile wrote: post #75
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your house uses good standard local communication protocols, like Z-Wave, ZigBee, or Insteon, you can take your cloud devices, and a new owner can just buy a new hub device with their own cloud account and connect the devices to it. Doesn't matter what the other person has in their account at that juncture. That being said, if I was ever to leave home automation hardware behind, it'd be a "if you want to pay x on…

Where I live the general rule is anything that was attached is considered part of the home you're buying/selling. If you don't want the light switches and thermostat being sold they should be removed and replaced before you show the home.

What is or is not included in the home sale should be explicitly listed in the property listing. Many houses are shown with contents that will be removed before sale, so when you buy a house, if there's something you're expecting to get as part of it, you should explicitly document it in your offer terms.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#96

Post by sailfast »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #31
wyldfire wrote: post #20

> do we hand over all the cloud passwords as well? Or do we factory reset everything and let them go through the dull process of setting up new accounts? Wow, I hope this is rhetorical. No, you never give anyone your password for anything. Yes, you absolutely let them go through the dull process of setting up new accounts. > When I move into a house, do I want to spend the first day looking up manuals online to try a…

> Wow, I hope this is rhetorical. No, you never give anyone your password for anything. Well assuming it's a unique password, not connected to other accounts and you've deleted any sensitive data, why is this so obviously not even an option to you? Sometimes deleting an account is a ginormous pain and it saves some trouble for the buyer.

...because they would have access to data that is not theirs. I know we get so used to leaving our trail everywhere so folks don't care, but if you think about it, the Nest thermostat probably knows every time you've walked by it for the past few years, when you've interacted with the thermostat, settings / preferences, and a host of other data.

Left to the new owner, maybe "who cares!" but one should really try to get rid of data they no longer need / use wherever possible.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#97

Post by fastball »

whatshisface wrote: post #79
pythonaut_16 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could be a cool exercise for your home. Document the various quirks and routines in a Github repository, then the new owner can gain access by forking it. Taking it a step farther, your family could submit issues or pull requests for various issues as they come up, generating an easy list of things that should be documented or fixed. Now realistically the person buying your house probably doesn't know how to use…

It would be in your interest to conceal the problems that your house has, in order to compete with the ignorance offered by everyone else. While this would benefit humanity, nobody would do it.

All houses have problems. The selling point is, "yeah, we have problems like everyone else, but they're out in the open, so you'll never be surprised and you'll have a clear gameplan to deal with all of them".

You're selling it as a mitigation of stress.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#98

Post by poppop22 »

fuzzieozzie wrote: post #78

All internet connected devices in our home are identified by a special "home" email, and info. No personally identified info -- just house identified info (of course not with the house address!) I wonder how many license agreements I did not follow by doing this?

What do you mean? How do you do this?

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#99

Post by sailfast »

vincentkriek wrote: post #40
ashark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may be listing ours soon, and if we do I'm even swapping the LED bulbs for whatever's cheapest at the store. They're only about a year old and the house will sell for zero more dollars if I leave them up.

Is leaving lights in the house you sell an American thing? Unless it's built in lights like spots, all the bulbs and even fixtures usually move with the person where I'm from (the Netherlands).

The correct answer here RE "an American thing" is "whatever is written into the contract as 'conveying' with the house."

If you say "fixtures stay in the house" then they stay. If not, no obligation to leave them. Typically, however, these clauses deal primarily with appliances and other larger items (TVs, hot tubs, etc)

In my experience people don't think to bring the bulbs with them, written or otherwise.

Re: How do you move out of a smarthome?

#100

Post by lucaspiller »

ashark wrote: post #41
pavel_lishin wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much are the LED bulbs? I don't think I'd bother taking the time to save fifty bucks on a house move.

Heh, it'll be less than 1% of the total time I spend doing touch-ups and such. Maybe three minutes to save, yeah, $50-75. A tiny extra amount of effort on the actual packing and move, but time saved buying new bulbs when the ones in the next house start burning out makes up for that. Besides, I've got most of 'em in in-socket splitters (makes one bulb socked into two) in crappy basement fixtures which I'm pretty sure…

Three minutes to change all the bulbs?
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